What the OIG Says
In the OIG’s Compliance Program Guidance for Ambulance Services, education and training programs are third on the list of basic elements of a compliance program. The OIG says that there should be regular training and education provided to employees and other appropriate individuals and that the content should be tailored and delivered in a way to maximize understanding.
This training should include an overview of the compliance program itself as well as job specific training. Cross training when appropriate can also help employees understand their role within the compliance program and how their actions impact others.
The OIG emphasizes the importance of interactive training with real life examples to help employees comprehend the material. These examples, along with the ability to ask questions and share their thoughts are key to a successful training program.
What Goes into a Training Program?
Providing training to all employees can be a difficult task for many ambulance services. The issue is time and resources. There will always be employees on shift and EMTs may work at more than one ambulance service. Scheduling times to provide all employees with training can be challenging.
A quality training program demands a lot of resources. Hiring someone qualified to talk about EMS compliance who is also an effective communicator is its own hurdle. Additionally, to follow the OIG’s guidance, a service would need to create and update presentations covering the ever changing landscape of compliance, locate real life examples for the scenarios covered in training, create quizzes on each subject, and ensure all employees received the training.
For many services stretched thin financially and with staffing shortages, developing an effective training program like this can be difficult and costly.
What We Offer
We’ve developed our compliance training program over 10 years, and Phil Horn, our CEO, has trained employees on EMS compliance for seven years. Phil has done ride-alongs and has spent time with in-house billing offices to understand how compliance functions across different jobs. He is also a John Maxwell certified speaker, coach, and trainer.
Phil conducts engaging in-person sessions and recently we have created an online training platform with video sessions hosted by Phil. The platform tests employee knowledge at the end of each section to confirm the information is retained, allows employees to submit questions, and provides service admin with a dashboard to track employee progress.
We continue to upgrade our online training to engage with employees and help them synthesize the information. For services who also engage us for auditing, we can use your own documentation to share real life examples of problem areas to assist with training and your service’s QA process.
To find out more about our training platform, or any of our other services, use our contact form to reach out!